Wayne,
I am sure you will get a wide variety of opinions from your inquiry. There
are many good antennas on the market to choose from. You have asked the
equivalent of "what car should I buy?" and will get a full range of answers to
your question! Good luck in selecting your antenna.
Most antennas are competitively priced, so if you see a real cheap bargain,
that is precisely what you will get, "cheap". Cheap relates to "it won't last
long" and "poor performance" because of lightweight construction and inferior
components in the design.
Both my brother and I have had great success with the HyGain TH5 (300
countries worked). It sits on a 24 foot boom and with dual driven elements it
offers wideband coverage and good results at 70 feet. It's weakest link is
the BN88 balun. It should be replaced with their high power version balun if
you run 1000 or more watts or will be using it on RTTY. Mine was up 90 feet,
my brother's is up 70 feet.
A few years ago I replaced my TH-5 with a Mosley PRO-67B when I decided I
wanted coverage for 40 meters and the WARC bands. It also sits on a 24 foot
boom, but is much heavier and more complex to assemble. It's relatively
expensive too, but it is built rugged.
It survived a severe ice storm where the elements were coated so heavily with
ice, they looked like U-bolts hanging from the boom! After a week of sub zero
weather (ice wouldn't melt off) and high winds (50 mph at times) the elements
bounced back into position after the bad weather subsided. Many radio tower
installations (both amateur and commercial) didn't make it through that
January storm around the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. It's my opinion this is
natures way of weeding out the weak!
The Mosley performs "adequately". My selection criteria was a single rotable
antenna, less than 15 square feet, and coverage of 40-20-17-15-12-10 meter
bands. It meets these parameters and allows me to have directivity with a
single antenna on a 90 foot free-standing aluminum tower (no guy wires).
There are better antennas (performance) but none of them would meet all my
criteria at that time. Possibly a product from the Force Company would now.
They were an unknown startup company when I made my purchase decision.
73 de Bob - K0RC
My brother is Al, KD8FS in Michigan.
Wayne Alexander wrote:
> I am wanting to purchase a Tri-Band Beam. Which Beam is the best? Don't
> want a 30 foot boom too big for my yard.I have a 70 ft tower to put it on.
> Just was wondering what you guys thought? Thanks and have a great weekend.
> 73,
> N0EA
> Wayne
> Willard,MO
> FISTS # 4907
> QRP-L # 1058
> Web Page http://www.qsl.net/n0ea
>
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